We take our name from Rhakotis, the Egyptian fishing town that developed into Alexandria, the classical city par excellence. Just as that city was both Egyptian and international, so was the ancient world.

We see the ancient world as a complex and cosmopolitan space in which various societies intermingled, creating international and local cultures that changed, merged and ruptured over the centuries. The history and culture of these societies have had and continue to have an impact on later societies which are themselves complex and never neutral.